Colourful, sculptural exterior of buildings incorporating traditional Indian culture

A composition of coloured cuboids defines this sculptural residential project by Sanjay Puri Architects. The brief for these mid-rise buildings in Kodla, Karnataka, India was to create studio apartments, a hostel, and a guest house to house workers of a new cement plant, on the perimeter of a housing project for a residential township.

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Photo credit: RICKEN DESAI

Due to the hot climate of the region, where temperatures exceed 35°C for 8 months of the year, each of the rooms is angularly stepped in the layout and oriented towards the north. The brief calls for 18 studio apartments, 54 hostel rooms, and 18 guesthouse rooms to be created in buildings of 4 & 5 levels, all facing large landscaped areas and a large playground to the northeast. Common facilities, including a cafeteria, a game room, a lounge, and a gym are housed on the ground level. Rooms opening onto sheltered north-facing balconies occupy the upper floors.

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Photo credit: RICKEN DESAI

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Photo credit: RICKEN DESAI

 Indian culture is known for its vivid use of colour in traditional crafts, festivities, and clothing. India is the only country that annually celebrates Holi, a festival of colour. Three of the most vivid primary colours – red, blue, and yellow - highlight the cantilevered balconies of each room, creating an identity and simultaneously enhancing the sculptural look of the buildings.

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Photo credit: RICKEN DESAI

Economically built, with emphasis on natural ventilation and natural sunlight, the buildings are very energy efficient. Fly ash brick walls, water recycling, rainwater harvesting, northern orientation, and sheltered outdoor spaces reduce heat gain and render the design sustainable. The entirety of required electrical energy is harnessed from the residual energy of the nearby cement plant. Studios 90 is a simple, energy-efficient residential building that responds to the site and the climate, while also alluding to the cultural and social needs of its inhabitants.

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Photo credit: RICKEN DESAI

About Sanjay Puri Architects

Sanjay Puri Architects are listed in the top 100 architects worldwide by Archdaily. Architizer, New York includes Sanjay Puri Architects in their list of the top 136 design firms worldwide, and the firm tops the list of WA Community award winners across the world. As winners of the LEAF Awards London Best Interior Architecture 2021, the World Architecture Festival’s Best Housing Project of the Year 2018 in Amsterdam, and the World’s Best Residential building in the LEAF Awards, London 2017, the firm has amassed more than 270 awards, including over 195 international awards and over 100 National awards. With a firm of 72 professionals, the essence of the firm’s design philosophy is to contribute to evolving design solutions that are contextual, and to create spaces that revolutionize the way they are experienced.